Jagran Josh

It seems like that the state of education in Odisha is under some serious problem, according to the latest report more than 85, 785 plus two seats lying vacant in Higher Secondary Schools (earlier known as junior colleges) after the spot admission. The latest crisis has become a major concern for the state government. According to some experts, the main reason for the large chunk of seats going vacant is more supply and less demand, lack of proper infrastructure and faculty in higher secondary schools and lure of coaching centres in other states. Besides, a large number of students are joining vocational courses in ITIs leading to the vacancies.

"It is surely a matter of concern that a large number of seats are lying vacant. The supply is more compared to the demand, which is a primary reason. Every year the number of seats in various colleges is being increased without examining the demand. Besides, a large number of students are joining vocational colleges," said the chairman of the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Amarendra Patnaik.

There are a total 4, 24, 739 seats in three streams of Arts, Science and Commerce in 1,596 higher secondary schools in the state including 466 self-financing institutes. Of the total 2, 36,894 seats in arts stream as many as 13,412 seats are lying vacant. Similarly, of the total 1, 43,378 seats in science stream, 53,785 remained vacant, according to the sources. Around 4.35 lakh students have cleared the class10 examination conducted by the state government this year. Whereas, another 25,000 students have passed class 10 from other national boards like CBSE and ICSE. There are around one lakh diploma seats in nearly 1000 ITIs in the state.

"After class X, coaching for entrance examinations is a major reason for students to go to other states like Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. There the rate of success of coaching centre is better than in Odisha and the students also continue their plus two simultaneously," said Raghunath Panda, principal of Institute of Higher Secondary Education (IHSE), a self-financing higher secondary school in the city.

Panda also said that the academic session in schools of Odisha is less than that in the other states, which is also attracting serious students to other states. Besides, the vacancy is more in self-financing institutes because there are many colleges running without proper infrastructure and faculties, for which they have few takers, he added.

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